Carla Bley/Andy Sheppard/Steve Swallow: Life Goes On

If there’s an air of resignation to the way pianist/composer Bley has titled the movements of her opening suite—“Life Goes On,” “On,” “And On,” “And Then One Day”—it is belied throughout this gently gripping album by Bley’s indelible wit and unsinkable sanguinity. Both are evident in her pithy liner notes, her quotes of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” and “The Star Spangled Banner” in the “Beautiful Telephones” suite (inspired by remarks made by the current president during his first week in the White House), her play on call-and-response in the closing suite, “Copy Cat,” and the unfrantic flow of her elegant melodies …